#3 - Frank James 2007-05-16 14:27 - (Reply)

Dear Mr. Key Please excuse my bluntness, but I believe there is too much political correctness in the world today, and not enough truth. It is with great sadness that I have just watched your JK VJ#8 video on controlling carbon emissions. I am saddened because yet again we see platitudes, more proposed legislation, but no leadership. The world needs strong leaders who can see the issues facing their countries and then can drive their Governments to establish a social and economic environment that supports those who try to address those issues. Instead we get politicians. What is the difference between the leader and statesman that we need, and the politicians we get?  A leader identifies potential future problems and acts to prevent those problems from occurring.  Politicians legislate so that they can appear to be doing something to fix the problems they have already caused through their previous round of platitudes, and then take as much credit as they can for any minor improvements in the situation, that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place. Let’s take the current Carbon emissions problem. In my humble view a leader would first identify every possible resource that is immediately at their disposal to address the problem and implement them NOW. Then they would identify what could be done easily, identify what will be hard to achieve and why. They will then find out what they can do to make it EASIER for their industry to do all of those things NOW. This approach is like a supportive parent who encourages their children and provides them with the tools they need to grow by achieving their goals and prospering By contrast a politician sets an arbitrary target that is in line with targets set by other politicians and then legislates the industry to death until those targets are met. Very clever really… If the targets are reached by industry working in spite of all the new legislation then you take the credit. If the targets are not reached then you can hide behind all the legislation that you have been working hard to create, and blame industry for not doing their part. Very clever for a politician who wants to stay in power that is, but very short sighted for a true leader and statesman who wants their country to grow to be all that it can. Rarely if ever have I seen an approach of legislation and taxes make it easier for anyone to achieve something productive. This approach is what I call the “Do it or I will hit you, and keep hitting you until you do it” approach so prevalent in our culture. Unfortunately the stakes you are playing with are much higher than getting a spanked bottom. You are playing literally with the lives of the New Zealand people. For the past two years I have been working on developing an engine that does not require any fuel. High coercivity NeFeB (Neodymium Iron Boron) magnets power it. It is completely scalable in both size and power, and could provide every home and business in New Zealand with unlimited clean 100% emission free power. Too good to be true? I guess politicians think so, because despite repeated requests for any kind of assistance, I have had no help of ANY kind to commercialise the product in New Zealand at all. Now while that may be a politically clever move, I doubt that you could argue that a true leader and statesman would pass up the opportunity to investigate the potential of such a device for their economy. I have no choice now, but to take my device off shore, where I have people who are interested in gaining as much competitive advantage as they can. Yes this engine is already a proven working reality, not an artificial target. The first working prototype was built over 6 months ago. I ask you as an intelligent man, just how much of that half a trillion dollars worth of low carbon market do you think New Zealand will get in 2050, after they have been competing with a flourishing Chinese economy that has been expanding for the last 40+ years on the back of an unlimited source of free power, and a reputation for leading the world, and being the first completely carbon neutral country. On top of that just work out how much income the Chinese will get by leasing these devices back to the rest of the world, at say the equivalent of the average NZ house hold power bill. For ease of maths lets say that the average monthly spend on power per house is $100 per month If the Chinese manufacture 1 machine for every house in America, ignoring the businesses they have 110,000,000 paying $1,200 per year. That’s an ANNUAL income of $ 133,200,000,000 add to that the businesses and you have as much as the entire industry you were predicting for low carbon products. I guess your advisers didn’t factor in energy as a low carbon product, a shortsighted view. But the key point here is that they don’t have to wait until 2050, they are going to have it now… because we have politicians with “perfectly well balance policies” not leaders. Thank you for at least taking the time to read this. I truly hope you will develop into a real leader and a statesman, and not settle for being a politician as so many before you have done. Please excuse my bluntness, but I believe there is too much political correctness in the world today, and not enough truth. Kind regards and best wishes for all of our futures. Frank James.